Adolescent Dog Survival Thread - welcome to the teenage wasteland

[Bupster]

Buckled (under instruction 😄)

I am the same as @CoubousAndTourmalet and regret not taking V to busier places more when he was really small. But the reality for us is I am autistic and so is DD so we both get stressed even without Vinny in the mix… so it’s a bit of a non starter to begin with 😂

There’s a lady in our village who has a gorgeous lemon cocker puppy and they are always out and about everywhere and he’s very well behaved, but then so was V until he turned 6 months so I try not to compare!!

Also had a very embarrassing moment earlier on the main road where we were waiting for the green man to cross, then V decided the middle of the road was exactly where he would squat for a shit. I didn’t have time to get a bag out and pick it up before the lights changed, so I went back on myself to the pavement and stood awkwardly watching cars squash the poo into the road and then when the lights changed again it was so flattened that I couldn’t pick it up anyway 😂

I hear you @YorkshireFelix I've just been reduced to tears by today's walk. Too many people, too many dogs. For me, not her. She just did her usual lead ragging, arsing stuff. I just feel overwhelmed.

Ugh I’m sorry! It gets so busy here when the weather is nice so I totally sympathise. I always forget then venture out and go ‘EUGH PEOPLE!!’

@YorkshireFelix ahh no! Squashed poo! If only they could shit on command 😂

@CoubousAndTourmalet Im so sorry you’re feeling overwhelmed - that sounds very stressful. I’m definitely not a fan of crowds and noise either. Give me solitude! @YorkshireFelix the same thing goes through my head when there are too many people about! I hope you get a restful evening to make up for it.

If it’s any consolation, I’ve just had my first good cry since bringing Pablo home. The breeder made a comment on our WhatsApp group that my puppy will develop separation anxiety if I don’t start sleeping upstairs (people were asking what everyone’s sleeping arrangements were)
I didn’t think it would be an issue for now as long as we are both getting a good nights’ sleep and now I’m worried I’m not doing the right thing by him.

Exactly. That was me today 😞We're in quite a touristy area too.

The breeder's talking out of their arse, @VanGoSunflowers . Every puppy is different, partly through breeding but also personality. Some will be fine left alone from the beginning, but lots can't be left at all - DTAS recommend they're not left alone for the first nine months, specifically to avoid separation anxiety, which is more likely if the puppy is left alone and frightened to cry it out.

Many pups will be fine on their own long before that, but you have to go at their pace, not someone else's artificial and out of date assumptions.

(Bill is 14 months and still wants to nap in contact with me, and is only now just starting to take himself off to another room when bored. He can be left alone with another dog when at daycare no bother at all, the little sod).

@VanGoSunflowers To be blunt - your breeder said you could only do one ten minute walk every three days, so they have form for talking bollocks.
My dogs all sleep in my bedroom. They have never been left to sleep alone at night. They are all perfectly happy to be left at home during the day, or take themselves off to different rooms during the day. P often goes and has an afternoon nap on my bed. To be fair, K has never been left home alone as she has the others for company. But I have just left her with a total stranger (to her, not me) for two days and she couldn't have given less of a shit that I wasn't there.
Cute puppy in a borrowed drying coat, obviously distressed and pining away for me.

Thanks @VanGoSunflowers
Sorry you've had tears too.

In total agreement with @Bupster - I sofa slept in the living room with Brie in the kitchen behind the puppy gate. She doesn't have separation anxiety as such, she was quite independent from early on, but I still wanted to be close to her while she was small because it made toilet training easier.

I'm actually sleeping downstairs currently, not because of Brie but due to my disabilities (neurological & musculoskeletal) making it difficult to lie down. She knows I'm there, but she's in the back room on the tiles most of the time. I do like having her close and she snores a lot less than my partner does 😆

I'm not a follower of DTAS, I've always done my own thing, but I do let my pups dictate the pace, exactly as Bupster says.

Go with your instincts with Pablo, because I'd say thus far they've been spot on.

The breeder made a comment on our WhatsApp group that my puppy will develop separation anxiety if I don’t start sleeping upstairs (people were asking what everyone’s sleeping arrangements were)

Your breeder is a dickhead @VanGoSunflowers and should be giving you confidence in your first few months of dog ownership, not trying to make you second guess your decisions.

Dogs can develop separation anxiety by moving too quickly as well as moving too slowly and, at the end of the day, you know Pablo now better than she does. It's hard to say it as a breeder, but once the puppies are gone and they've spent a few weeks in their new homes...they're basically unidentifiable from the puppies we raised because they change so much. She doesn't know who Pablo is anymore, or what he needs. You do.

Personally, I think tou're 100% doing right by him 😊

Thank you so much for all of your comments @Bupster, @CoubousAndTourmalet and @SpanielsGalore . I honestly can’t see any anxious behaviours in him when he is apart from me, unless it’s when he is trying to sleep. So I don’t leave the room for now when he sleeps. Unless it’s for a wee or to make a coffee which he is fine with. I’ve built up to where we are now. At first, he literally came everywhere with me. I peed many a time with him by my feet 😂
Now, I can go and take a shower, put my son to bed and leave him free roaming downstairs and I don’t hear a peep. I don’t even have to give him a special distraction for the purpose, he is just fine. So I figured ok cool - I’ll just keep building it up like this and eventually I will get back to bed and all will be cool. And if not, I am willing to compromise and he can sleep upstairs with me. He is learning so much at the moment, out for walks and experiencing new things that I don’t want to throw everything at him all at once? It feels logical to me to keep the home environment largely the same while he is getting used to all the other stuff he is getting used to.

He doesn’t follow me around all the time, only when I’m being more interesting than his toys 😂 he will quite happily go and take himself outside in the garden for a sniff around if I am in a different room and I don’t mind sleeping in the same room as him for a while so wasn’t sweating it.

@LandSharksAnonymous you have made an extremely good point, I do know him better and I don’t want to push him and this sentence:

Dogs can develop separation anxiety by moving too quickly as well as moving too slowly

Is exactly what I needed to hear.

Mate, you're doing brilliantly - Bill is much more of a velcro dog. When he was tiny I had to take him to the loo with me in a sling so he could sit on my lap while I peed. He will now bugger off if I'm doing something boring like the washing up, but only after prolonged grumbling. He lay and stared at me from the doorway for 15 minutes today while I took a bath, before finally falling asleep with one eye open. This is still a vast improvement - I only took showers until he was about a year old, and even then I had to leave the cubicle doors open in case he needed to come in and rescue me. If I give him a Kong or a chew, he brings them to me to hold so he can eat them like an ice cream.

I don't mind any of this btw - we have the loveliest bond, and there are just the two of us, which means it's not like there's anyone else he can go to for connection or comfort.

I suppose what I'm saying is, if your tiny pup is happy enough and independent enough to cope with you wandering off, you're doing brilliantly. Just bear in mind that their confidence can come and go - you might find he is a bit more needy sometimes and a bit less at other times, all the way to adulthood.

Ah @YorkshireFelix - makes me realise there are certain advantages to having dogs that would never poo on tarmac/pavement!

4 years since we brought this was home today, she's more of an adolescent than the younger one!

Then and now

Gorgeous! How has that toy lasted so long?!

@SpanielsGalore i meant to say in my last post, that pic melted me 😍

@tizwozliz I love those! Like before and after pics in the same spot with the same toy ❤️ absolutely stunning

@Bupster thank you so much. And I love hearing about your experiences!

Ive got such puppy brain that I just took Pabs out for a quick walk and came back and I had left my keys in the front door 🤦‍♀️

Ah, not the same toy!

The one pictured today is one I made during COVID but it had plastic eyes so I made pup one with dog safe eyes.

The original is a bit worse for wear, I'm not sure where it is. It has definitely lost its beak but it has not faired too badly considering it's been played with like this.

That's amazing @tizwozliz ! I know you mentioned that you do crochet but these are really lovely toys.

Incredible toys @tizwozliz!

I just had the walk from hell - Parkrun was earlier than expected. So twatdog ended up assassinating about six children in his quest to play with my girls. I’m slightly embarrassed but also slightly annoyed as the Parkrun takes up the entire path so moving it to prime dog walking time is a terrible idea!

Good Morning all

Sorry about nightmare walk @LandSharksAnonymous 😬We all seem to be going through the 'too many people' scenario at present... another reason for wanting summer to be over 🙄

Drizzly here in the West Pennines this morning, sky looks very threatening all around us.
We've had some garden play and another grooming session - another bagful of fluff has come off her this morning and I think she'll feel better for it. She's full of attitude at the moment, but it just cracks me up when she starts mouthing off as on this photo from a couple of days ago.

Bring on the freezing rain and hurricane winds @CoubousAndTourmalet 😁

Does she enjoy being groomed? That photo makes me smile - looks like someone’s on the receiving end of an ‘evil eye.’

@tizwozliz How lovely to be talented enough to make toys for your dogs. They look fab.

@LandSharksAnonymous Sorry you had a bad walk. I used to detest Sunday walks when I lived in a busier area. Especially if it was sunny.
I met a woman with three GR yesterday. Unfortunately one of them was a bit grumpy and wasn't very nice to my girls. And he had shit recall.

@CoubousAndTourmalet I'm always amazed by how sparkling white Brie is. 💖 My white dog is usually varying shades of mud.

Indeed. Winter is coming 😉

Wouldn't quite use the word "enjoy", it's a case of one of us holding her while the other rakes out, otherwise she turns it into a game and we end up chasing her around house and garden with the slicker brush in our hand.

Oh she gives a mean side-eye 🙄 When we're out walking I get this look before she kicks off with the lead biting and weirdly, I'm told that Brie's littermate Iona does the exact same thing. They're full of character and very cheeky.

Glorious this morning here, as in it was pissing with rain and we hardly saw anyone else on our normal walk, when for the last few weeks it's been mobbed. God, I've missed the rain. Plenty of space for playing and training, though Bill refused to sit for a marked retrieve, even though I was using his favourite rabbit pocket. He gave me the most plaintive 'murp', quite clearly meaning 'do I really have to?' and I couldn't bring myself to insist. I'm sure real gundogs don't mind getting their fluffy little arses wet.

@SpanielsGalore when Bill went to puppy class, there was this perfect GR who used to spend the class sitting nicely and gazing adoringly at its owners. The other two puppies were hiding under the owners' chairs, while Bill, of course, spent the whole time trying to climb the barriers to get to the other dogs and generally looking for trouble. Perfect Puppy then started to go to the same daycare as Bill which was lovely (they're in a gang, apparently, along with a Dulux dog we know from his walks). One day a couple of months back, we saw Perfect Puppy on the Common. The first time that happened (shortly after puppy class) Bill ran over to them with no recall and it was mortifying. This time round, PP ran the width of the Common to get to Bill, with absolutely no sign of recognition that she had an owner at all. I cannot tell you how utterly delighted I was 😄

In other schadenfreude adolescent news, one of my friends is having to replace their living room floor as their teenage rescue dog peed on it so much that all the floorboards swelled up.

They're Teflon coated @SpanielsGalore , no joke. We could walk the muddy reservoir paths, same as everyone and still come home with clean dogs.
I suspect some of it is the size; the big hairy paws get filthy, gritty, covered in burrs and sticky bobs, but they have enough leg length to keep the body relatively clean.

It's only when you see PMD against snow you realise they're a creamy beige, not white.

@SpanielsGalore - sorry about your experience yesterday! I have to confess, mine go to the other degree of recall. I simply couldn't recall today because the dogs were on the other side of the path when the park-run sprinted past...if I had recalled then the dogs would have simply barged through the middle of them 😄As soon as I yelled 'Stop' then all stopped though. Minus twatdog. Because he is stupid.

@CoubousAndTourmalet I have the same pain with twatdog. He thinks it's all a game. Sigh.

@Bupster Perhaps PP has a crush on Bill? 😄